Patrick Dawson, Megan Fletcher and Tom Reed are now on their way to Kazan, Russia for the British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) World University Games.

The trio will represent Great Britain (GB) in judo at the event between 6 and 17 July. Due to injury Andrew Burns, who would have made it four, was forced to pull out earlier this week.

These judoka join the 175 athletes representing disciplines ranging from gymnastics, badminton, fencing, football, rugby 7’s, shooting, swimming and tennis. Also known as the Universiade Kazan 2013 Russia – the event is the second largest multi-sport event in the world after the Olympic Games.

Scottish Judoka Patrick Dawson from Heriot Watt University was selected in the -73kg category. This year he has won bronze in the San Salvador Pan-American Open, silver in the British Championships and gold in Buenos Aires Pan-American competition.

Just before boarding his plane, Patrick told the British Judo Association: “There is a strong team going to Kazan and I look forward to seeing how it goes. I’m very excited to be competing at the World University Games. We are in the airport and coming into contact with other teams. I can’t wait to compete!”

Two members of Team Bath will also represent their own individual universities. Tom Reed of St Mary’s University College is competing in the -81kg category fresh from a gold medal victory in the Miami Grand Prix. In total he has four international gold medals to his name in addition to four silver and two gold medals in national senior championships.

Megan Fletcher, representing the University of Bristol in the -70kg category, returns to her second World University Games after competing in Shenzhen two years ago. She has already won eight international gold medals plus earlier this year secured gold in the 2013 National Championships.

Image courtesy of EJU. Words by Donna Richardson.